Well, even if you do decide to go that route, it's really important to "keep your own counsel", because otherwise -- if they know that when push comes to shove, you will buckle and pull the "R" lever, they've got you -- they will put you down in the "OWNED" column and move on to the next voter.
It's like "tough love". You have got to make them know that you mean business. Otherwise, it's just a matter of letting you blow off some steam, get it out of your system, and then right back to "gimme the car-keys, dad -- I'll be back at whatever hour I feel like getting back."
If they know that you will vote for them no matter how badly they treat you, their behavior will NOT change.
It's like the "abused wife syndrome."
They have GOT to know that you mean business -- even if you don't!
Otherwise, they will simply treat you like dirt and keep a-whoring after the "other" interests. Why pander to "the base", when they can "own" our votes, and go after the "illegal alien constituency"?
The RATs do the same thing to their "base" -- they treat Black people like "property", meanwhile, they are trying to pander after US and OUR votes! Sir Hillary is quoting scripture (poorly), various DNC types make pro-Second Amendment noises...
That's the nature of "big politics". And they only cure is "tough love" -- they have GOT to realize that they do NOT "own" us or our votes! If they really do perceive it as a matter of will -- that when push comes to shove, we WILL vote for them no matter HOW much they betray us and the platform we elected them on, then they will NEVER behave!
To a politician, "winning" is what it's all about. And the way to win, they think, is to square away as many "owned" votes as possible, and then go pandering to the other party's constituencies.
It hardly matters to them if, in the process, the "conservative" Republican party moves farther to the left than the "liberal" Democrats were just a few years ago. What matters is winning, and PRINCIPLE has no part of that process.
That is, it WILL have no part of that process, so long as they are confident that they DO "own" the votes of "the base."
I realize this is hard stuff to hear. Hell, I got kicked off for a while for even suggesting that we hold their feet to the fire back during the last election cycle. And when I was "let back in", I had such a sour taste in my mouth that I stayed away for a while.
But some things are more important than "winning" at "any cost" -- because if, in the process of "winning" an election against "the other side", we become "the other side", what's the whole point of it all?
Is it a game? I am not into "sport-politics". I do NOT see "politics" as a "team sport". I see it as the life OR death of the country -- and I also see that, if given free reign, "our" party WILL reduce it to that level -- the level at which "victory" means "winning". Not "winning" a principle -- a dream -- a HOPE for what SHOULD be done -- but winning a "contest", and nothing more.
The stakes are too high to allow THAT kind of "victory" to happen, IMO.
The only hope for the Republican Party is to get it through the "leadership's" skulls that principles DO matter -- that it's NOT just a question of "winning" -- and, that, if they DO want to "win", it will have to be done AS the party that they are supposed to be, rather than as a cheap knock-off of the Democrats!
I am going to borrow that - I am using tough love with the GOP!